Man allegedly threatens security guard with knife outside Denton Bible Church
Denton TX July 5th, 2023
A 33-year-old man was arrested Monday after he allegedly threatened a security guard with a knife outside Denton Bible Church, according to a Denton police report.
At about 8:20 a.m., Denton police were dispatched to the 2300 block of East University Drive for a call about a person with a knife. Dispatchers advised police that a man on the church property had threatened someone with a gun and showed them a knife.
Dispatch then said the man had run off. Officers were able to locate him in the 2000 block of Chandler Road and detained him in handcuffs. During a search, the report states officers found a knife in his pocket.
Officers contacted the caller, a security guard at the church. The security guard said she arrived in the parking lot and saw the man asleep on the church steps. She asked him to leave and drove away.
While the report did not specify whether anyone else was at the church, Denton Bible Church’s website indicates it opens at 8:30 a.m.
When the security guard returned a bit later, she said the man hadn’t moved. The report states that before she could get out of her vehicle, the man started to run toward her with a knife in his hands. Then, the man stopped, grabbed his belongings, and ran off when he heard police sirens.
The security guard said she didn’t feel threatened and didn’t want to press charges for assault. The report states she asked that he be criminally trespassed from the church.
However, police arrested him on four active warrants. Three of them — possession of drug paraphernalia; terroristic threat causing fear of serious bodily injury; and criminal trespass of a habitation, shelter or Superfund site — were issued out of other agencies.
The other warrant, burglary of a building, was issued out of the Denton Police Department. Denton detectives connected the man to a 2022 case in which $10,000 in merchandise went missing from a local store.
On July 23, 2022, police were dispatched to an antique store in the 5800 block of Interstate 35. The caller said someone broke a window overnight and one booth was missing items.
The owner reported that a watch case containing 10 watches worth $2,500 was gone. There was also an assortment of other jewelry missing, which the owner estimated cost $10,000.
After reviewing video footage of the incident, the report states detectives connected the man to the incident. They applied for his arrest warrant in April.
The man was booked into the Denton County Jail on Tuesday with his bail set at $15,000.
